Yesterday written at the Detroit Airport after missing a flight by seconds:
Today is a looong day of travel. First waking up an hour late, and then followed by driving hell bent through freezing rain to the MSP. Luckily for me I breezed through security with no problems at all, (although it still amazes me to this day how some people still walk through all the security with metal shit in their pockets and act surprised when the alarm goes off) and made it to my gate and to the planes no problem at all...that's about as smooth as the trip gets! Once on the plane we are delayed an hour and a half as they try to de-ice the plane for take off. Still doin' good I managed to fall asleep for that crap. Here's where the shit starts to happen. The fattest guy on the flight decides to move seats and sits right in front of me which was an empty row. He had three chairs to pick from none of which would have bothered me or anyone else and he picks the one right in front of me! This mother f----r sits right down and kicks the seat back as far as it'll go so quick I didn't have time to move my knees, he absolutely crushed them! I let out a yelp, followed by a 'are you f-----g serious?'. The flight attendant tells me they won't have language like that on the air plane. I say what the hell, do they allow people to move seats midflight? No answer. The guy gives me a dirty look and I look at him and say, ' hey if you lost 50 pds you'd fit back in your regular seat'. By this point people are listening to us bicker, and laughing. But whatever the guy still got to stay there and everyone else got a good laugh out of the deal. But dang son, take your fat ass on a bus next time!
Travel day from hell continues!
Detroit must have one of the most spread out airports in the country! Because of the freezing rain the flight was already behind, now I am sprinting from one end of the airport to the other to try to catch my plane, which I miss by literally seconds! Uuuuuuuh, stuck in Detroit's craps ass airport for three extra hours only to land in Saginaw(shithole, and ranked by the FBI as the most violent city in America!) with my bags missing. Apparently they still made the flight while I stayed in Detroit for three more hours. 30 minutes later they find my bags and I'm on my way. Super stoked to leave the airports behind me and get to the truck. Repack my bags to fit the stuff I didn't take to Levi's for the shoot. Get the trash sorted. Jump up front stick the keys in and give 'em a turn....nothin'...Look at the gauges...no juice. Fuk me. We have out generators tied to the batts, so I fire up the generator to try and get some juice back in the batteries, grab my laptop and head back into the airport to get some internet and call out fleet services to get a tow. 30 minutes pass, first tow truck shows up...I head back out to the rig. We give it another try. BAM!!!! She starts up on the first turn! So stoked, let it charge for another 30 minutes, Alright we are good to go finally!!!! Pop 'r in drive and head out the gate. BAM! A mile down the road the warning light panel lights up with everything! Pull over and shut 'r down immediately...another call to Fleet Services and a wrecker is on the way. 40-60 minutes later and the wrecker is there...its now 2:30am. We get the rig chained up and ready to tow. It gets dropped at Diesel Trucks in Saginaw. The tow driver stops me at a hotel that I later find they call the Crack Head Hotel. This sketchy little hotel in downtown Saginasty...I didn't take pictures but it was 40 bucks a night if that can help give an idea of quality. The rooms were very basic and over crowed with weird furniture, no closet doors, no coffee maker, one chair, a bed, and an entertainment center to hold a crappy tv that gets two channels, and no heat. On the desk sits a bright orange paper with nothing but warnings....lock your doors, lock your windows, don't go outside after dark, don't answer your door, no guests allowed, no kids w/o a guardian, no stereos, no music, no parties. It is now 3am, I pull the sheets back and try to get some sleep.
7am can't come soon enough. I grab my bag and head to the lobby to call a cab. Oh that's right nothing can be easy on this trip. Saginaw has one taxi company, gonna be an hour and a half wait...I give Diesel Trucks a call...they don't even know the hotel I'm at! Luckyily within 30 minutes they have truck come pick me up and we head to the shop. Cool we are at a rad shop, these guys are dialed and stoked to start workin' on the MXT!
I hand 'em the keys help them pull it into the shop. Head to the driver lounge and start waiting...it is now 9am... 4:30 rolls around and they tell me they are just wrappin' up the rig. Belt came off the water pump...I'm like uhoh that's not good! The guy says I should be good to go. I call to the event I'm headed to and give him the green light! Sickness FINALLY on the road! So stoked! Jump up in the rig, turn the key...nothing. Damn I just can't catch a brake at this point! We bring the jump 'r out and get it runnin. I was like damn that's quite a big smokier they usual. The mechanic looks at me and says it'll clear up in a minute. So he say get after it! I headed to down the road maybe two blocks, we are laying a massive smoke screen! We are burning coolant....no good. I pull over, toss on the hazards and flip a bitch as fast I can. Back to the shop and the mechanic is like this isn't good. its is now 5;30. I get on the phone and call the event again and say...sorry man we are a no go this weekend. That didn't go over so well. The shop closes at 5:00pm, but two of the guys and the owner stick around to get me towed to a International dealer where can really dig into the problem. At this point it doesn't really matter none of the options are good ones. 7:00 pm rolls around and a new wrecker is there to two me the 5 miles to the other shop. The guy from Diesel Trucks drops me off in a WAY safer neighborhood and I get a hotel for the night. I set about trying to get a flight out of this shit hole. Luckily there is a flight the next morning at 8:49! I kick back for a minute then head out and grab some food...first food I've had in 28 hrs our something. Some good mexican food was in order and that's what I got! Hell yes!
Wake up in the morning head to the airport. Raddest taxi driver I've had in a while. Thanks for the ride Moe! Get through security only to have my flight delayed an hour. I just can't seem to catch a break! hahaha. But that's the end of my epic tale of hell from the road. I don't think it can ever get much worse then that! So here I sit in Chicago, with no truck...I guess we'll find out Monday what the real problem is!
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